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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) consensus panel on end-of-life care convened in December 2004, and among the conclusions reached by the panel of experts on death and palliative care is that medicine knows too little about the process of dying.
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The Lance Armstrong Foundation, which funds programs that assist people living with cancer, has become known for its bright yellow elastic LIVESTRONG wristbands. But the Morton Plant Mease Health Care hospitals in Florida recently voiced concerns that the LIVESTRONG bracelet on a patients arm could be confused with the yellow plastic bracelets the hospitals use to indicate a patient has opted for do-not-resuscitate status.
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The link between a persons religion or spirituality and physical condition is one that has gained increasing recognition and consideration in health care discussions, and hospital chaplains have been in the thick of the debate.
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You may think your hospital is doing a good job of preventing common errors that result in patient deaths, but the American Medical Asso ciation (AMA) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) think you can do better. In fact, they think hospitals in the United States can save 100,000 lives between now and June 2006.
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Women increasingly are electing to give birth by cesarean when there is no medical necessity to do so; meanwhile, the debate about the safety to the mother continues.
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In a new report, the Institute of Medicine calls for conventional medical treatments and complementary and alternative medical (CAM) treatments to be held to the same standards for demonstrating clinical effectiveness to make it easier for health care providers and the public to make evidence-based decisions about CAM use.
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Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are lifesaving devices, as demonstrated by a 2004 study that showed ICDs reduced death by 23% in people with moderate heart failure and poor pumping function, compared to patients who did not receive ICDs. But what if that lifesaving device outstays its welcome and prolongs death because its users havent discussed when their ICDs should be deactivated?
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Its illegal, it may undermine international treaties, and there are warnings that patient safety is at risk but for many, the cost savings of buying re-imported drugs outweighs all the arguments against it.
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The president of the American Medical Association (AMA), who became the target of criticism from gay and lesbian groups after comments defending a medical schools decision to ban a gay student group were attributed to him in a newspaper article, asserts that his views were misrepresented.
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Last year, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, the plaintiff in the ongoing case against the law, cannot sanction or hold doctors criminally liable for prescribing overdoses under Oregon law. The Bush administration has appealed, and the Supreme Court has agreed to review Oregons law.
